Replate
Replate is a food distribution site that coordinates excess food pickups from food markets and restaurants for delivery to homeless shelters, food banks, and other locations where food is in demand but not often abundant.
Our Motivation
Upon doing an upsetting amount of research, the developers of Replate discovered that, of all the food in the world, 1/3 of it is thrown out. On top of that, 10.56% of the world is still starving. People are discarding food entirely unnecessarily when others are struggling to find a place to get their next meal. This statistic deeply upset us, so we felt that it was in the best interest of the philanthropist inside all of us to figure out a way to coordinate the logistics of taking perfectly edible food and bringing it to those who need it most. One man's trash, right?
How to Use the Site
Volunteering Food
As a food donor, signing up will enable the user to coordinate pickup times from their establishment alongside a list of potential allergens in the food container. The only physical trouble the establishment has to go through is the form submission and, in the case of restaurants, placing the leftover food in takeout containers and placing the takeout containers into a box of their choice. We aren't that picky; we just don't want people to be hungry.
Volunteering Time
As a time donor, signing up will enable the user to coordinate with establishments' pickup requests. These users will then select pickups that they would like to sign up for, and their license plate number will be sent to the establishment so that they know who to look for. After the driver picks up the food, they will drive to the local food bank or homeless shelter, depending on the dropoff location designated by site administrators based upon affiliation with the site and proximity to the pickup point. The dropoff location will then send confirmation that they received the food, and the transaction is then complete. Time donors will be able to do as many or as few pickups as they would like.